Caring For Autistic People

Image via Community Table

The world commemorated Autism Awareness Day on the 2nd of April. As part of creating that awareness, we would like our readers to know what autism is all about, how it can be managed and the need to show love to people who have it. It is no fault of theirs that they act the way they do. So, when you read this, you can have a better understanding and see why they need you.

Autism is a serious developmental disorder that impairs the ability to communicate and interact. It is usually present from early childhood, mostly after the age of 3. Some people do not get to exhibit the symptoms profoundly until later that you may not really know that a child is autistic. It never leaves a person as a child with autism grows into an adult with autism. It is pertinent to state that, male children are most likely to be affected by autism and a professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Evan Eichler and his colleagues say it has something to do with the X chromosomes.

To know an autistic child, you should look out for things like a child’s inability to respond to his name on time, finding it difficult to recognise objects, gets irritated easily at sudden change, stays away from the crowd most times. What many do not know is that most autistic people are likely to face depression and with depression comes the thought of committing suicide.

We know this little boy who finds it hard to walk, barely talks, stays alone most times and his parents think it is some kind of African jazz that most have been done to that boy. That is what ignorance causes. We probably didn’t think of autism but as we can clearly see, it is almost possible that the boy is autistic. Now, we can speak to his parents to consider visiting a doctor and get scientific facts on what could be wrong with their boy.

Taking care of autistic people can be very demanding and puts a lot of strain on many relationships but they need us. Rather than try to come down hard on them for being in your lives, let us make them know that they matter to the society irrespective of their condition.

In this part of the world, we doubt the development of institutions to cater for autistic people as research has shown that with special education, they can learn and be better. So, maybe the Government can begin to think of such centres that can exist to cater for the needs of autistic people as it is an expensive scheme for any private institution to undertake on its own. It will mean that only the upper class can afford to cater for their autistic family members.

Got any ideas how we can care for anyone that is autistic, let’s discuss. Happy holidays!